This paper introduces how an organisation can see how much time is spent on good and bad I/O, how to zoom in on applications with the worst I/O profile and how to fix the problem, even without access to the program source code.

Introduction: Ellexus traffic-light reports show good and bad I/O

Bad I/O patterns can harm shared storage and limit application performance significantly. Without knowing it, many organisations are wasting millions in lost engineering time and under-utilised hardware. More and more organisations are getting involved in high performance and scientific computing, fuelled by the emergence of AI and intelligent objects, but their vital work is being limited by inefficient system architecture.

This problem is going to be exacerbated as systems grow. Big data is getting bigger, big compute power is getting faster – the I/O problems that are incidental now will be catastrophic once they are magnified. Now is the time for all organisations to care about how applications access programs, libraries and files on local and shared file systems.

However, let’s not pretend that organisations have the time and resources to fix every single I/O problem. In reality, some I/O problems have a much more harmful effect on system performance than others. Some I/O is always bad, but some can be good – it all depends on the context of the application. Similarly, some problems can be solved with a very easy fix once they have been identified, rather than requiring a system-wide overhaul – identifying these first is crucial.

The tools from Ellexus, including the newly released traffic light view, allow a user to gain a full understanding of how their storage architecture is performing before zooming in on how to identify where quick, effective improvements can be made. Following the Ellexus workflow will allow an organisation to identify problems then implement system-wide fixes.